Midwives have been told to say “chestfeeding” instead of “breastfeeding” and to replace the term “mother” with “mother or birthing parent” as part of moves to be more trans-friendly.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust is the first in the country to formally implement a gender inclusive language policy for its maternity services department, which will now be known as “perinatal services”.

Staff have been instructed that “breastmilk” should be replaced with the phrases “human milk”, “breast/chestmilk” or “milk from the feeding mother or parent”.

Other changes include replacing the use of “woman” with “woman or person” and “father” with “parent”, “co-parent” or “second biological parent”, depending on the circumstances.

The French government is seeking to strengthen laws against an adult having sex with a child under the age of 15, after prominent cases of sexual abuse led to a national reckoning about sexual violence against children.

Unlike other countries, the French do not have a crime of statutory rape.

A sexual act with a child under the age of 15 is an offense of sexual assault of a minor with a lighter penalty than rape: six months to five years in jail as opposed to the 20-year jail term that is the maximum for offences of rape. But, where an act of sexual penetration occurs “under violence, duress, threat or surprise,” it is defined as rape regardless of age.

Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti announced this that he would seek new criminal sanctions for any “act of sexual penetration” by an adult of a minor under the age of 15.

This is still a narrower definition than other countries, as prosecutors would need to prove that intercourse took place.

The proposed bill also includes the necessity of an age gap of at least five years, in order not to criminalise sexual relationships between teenagers where one is older than 15 and the other is not.

Two recent books have helped spark debate – one writer describing her abuse while an underage teenager at the hands of prize-winning writer Gabriel Matzneff and the other alleging sexual abuse of a step-son by high-profile political commentator Olivier Duhamel.

In both cases, the writers say that the abuse was known about in the intellectual and social circles in which the men moved. Psychologist Muriel Salmona told the BBC, “in France there is a current that tolerates sexual violence against children.”

In Ireland, the age of consent is 17. On Tuesday, a man was sentenced to two years in prison with the second year suspended for having sex with a 16 year old boy when he was 21.

A leading Vatican cardinal has called the death toll due to the COVID-19 pandemic a real “massacre of the elderly”, and appealed for the world to re-think the way it cares for old people.

Italian Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, on Tuesday cited research by Tel Aviv University showing a direct proportional relationship between the number of beds in nursing homes and the number of elderly deaths in Europe whereby, in every country studied, the higher the number of beds in nursing homes, the higher the number of elderly victims.

French Father Bruno-Marie Duffè, Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said the fact that children and young people cannot meet their elderly leads to “real psychological disorders” for both young and old, who without being allowed to see one another, could “die of another virus: Grief.”

The officials were speaking at a presentation of the document, Old age: our future. The elderly after the pandemic.

The document calls for a reform of the health care system and urges families to try to comply with the wish of the elderly who request to stay in their homes, surrounded by loved ones and their own things whenever possible.

The Government will extend access to medical cards for people with a terminal illness from those who have one year to live to those with two years to live.

The proposal has been brought to Cabinet by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.

Last year he voted for a bill to legalise the assisted suicide of terminally ill patients with no time limits.

This means someone could be deemed eligible for assisted suicide, but not eligible for a medical card.

At present, about 1,800 people with a terminal illness have medical cards on compassionate grounds. This would increase to about 3,600 under the new Government plan.

The scheme is expected to assist people with a number of different conditions including motor neurone disease, neurological disease, advanced cancer and heart failure.

Pope Francis said Monday that the COVID-19 restrictions must still respect freedom of religion.

In his annual speech to the diplomatic corps, he told the assembly that the need to halt the spread of the virus had implications for a number of fundamental freedoms, including religious freedom, restricting public worship and the educational and charitable activities of faith communities.

“It must be recognized, however, that religion is a fundamental aspect of the human person and of society, and cannot be eliminated. Even as we seek ways to protect human lives from the spread of the virus, we cannot view the spiritual and moral dimension of the human person as less important than physical health”, he said.

He added that freedom of worship is not a corollary of the freedom of assembly.

“It is in essence derived from the right to freedom of religion, which is the primary and fundamental human right. This right must therefore be respected, protected and defended by civil authorities, like the right to bodily and physical health. For that matter, sound care of the body can never ignore care of the soul.”

All parties to a surrogacy agreement will be obliged to sign contracts which would enforce the handing over of the baby, even if the surrogate or the intending parents had changed their mind, if proposals in the UK and the Netherlands become law.

The introduction of “pre-conception agreements” would make a baby’s intended parents its legal parents at birth.

According to a survey in 2018 by Surrogacy UK, 84% of surrogates supported the introduction of pre-conception agreements. These provide assurance for the surrogate that she will not be left legally responsible for a child that she doesn’t consider hers. But the problem with such agreements, says Britta van Beers of Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, is that “legal certainty is bought at the cost of surrogate mothers”. Some fear that imposing any kind of legally enforceable contract on surrogates limits their rights of bodily autonomy, eg, if she wanted to keep the baby. In America, where surrogacy contracts are common, they detail the circumstances in which a woman can have an abortion. But whatever a woman agrees to in a contract, she may feel differently when she is actually pregnant and faces a conflict between her right to make decisions about her body and her contractual obligations.

The US Supreme Court has ordered that California’s total ban on indoor worship is unconstitutional. In a 6-3 decision, the Court said at most, the state may limit indoor capacity to 25% of normal.

California’s limits on religious services can vary by county, depending on infection rates. However, almost all of the state is in the Tier 1 ranking of viral spread, and this tier bars in-person worship indoors. Critics have said the ban wrongly singles out religious gatherings and is among the strictest in the country.

The Court was acting on emergency requests from two Christian evangelical churches.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that federal courts owe significant deference to politically accountable officials regarding public health, but it “has its limits.”

Roberts wrote that California’s determination “that the maximum number of adherents who can safely worship in the most cavernous cathedral is zero—appears to reflect not expertise or discretion, but instead insufficient appreciation or consideration of the interests at stake.”

Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone called the ruling “a breath of fresh air in dark times.”

“I want to thank all those who have worked tirelessly to affirm that the worship of God is the most essential service of all, especially the leaders of South Bay and Harvest Rock churches. I’d like also to thank warmly those Catholics who joined me in standing up against abuses of power by signing the petition at FreeTheMass.com,” he said.

The controversial claim had been made by the professional body for GPs in Ireland but was contrary to the findings of the UK court judgment in the case of Keira Bell.

The ICGP guide to providing care for transgender patients, written by Dr Des Crowley and Vanessa Lacey, also stated that cross-sex hormones were “partially reversible interventions”. Crowley is an assistant director of the ICGP addiction management programme, while Lacey is health and education manager with Transgender Equality Network Ireland (Teni), a group that lobbies for transgender rights.

The guide noted that adolescents can be prescribed puberty blockers at Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin, formerly Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital. “This treatment prevents sex steroid hormone release from gonadal tissue and its effect is reversible on discontinuing the treatment,” it stated.

Last week the guide was removed from the ICGP website and later republished with a series of amendments. It now omits any reference to the use of puberty blockers being reversible, and no longer says that oestrogen and testosterone therapy are “partially reversible”.

Pope Francis and Pope emeritus Benedict XVI have both received their second and final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Pope Francis and Benedict had received the first dose of the vaccine last month, as confirmed by Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office.

Vatican residents and employees and their families are receiving their doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine in the atrium of the Paul VI Hall.

Unlike other vaccines, the Pfizer jab was not developed or produced  using cell-lines derived from aborted foetuses, although it was tested on such a line.

Vatican City State, the world’s smallest independent nation-state, has a population of around 800 people. But together with the Holy See, the sovereign entity that predates it, it employs more than 4,000 people.

Vatican journalists traveling with Pope Francis on his trip to Iraq March 5-8 are required to get the vaccination against COVID-19.

The assisted suicide bill should not be progressed as it would do more harm than good, according to the Royal College of Surgeons.

In a submission to the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, they say Deputy Gino Kenny’s bill which grants a legal right to euthanise consenting terminally ill adults would create a precedent “to extend the practice to handicapped and sick individuals also, who do not suffer so much themselves, but rather are a perceived burden to society”.

They add: “Although many supporters of voluntary euthanasia base their case on respect for individual autonomy, it may well be that their understanding of who qualifies for the category of ‘human being’ depends on the quality of human life present. If this were so, it would be logical for them to regard the State as an institution whose duty it was to safeguard and promote the common good of ‘good quality human beings’ and dispose of those who do not meet the agreed criteria.”

The college also say the bill introduces “a fundamental reversal of a medical ethic that has sustained the welfare of patients for centuries”.

“It is at variance with the core values of the medical profession particularly in the area of patient protection. It has the potential to fundamentally damage the doctor/patient relationship. Instead of introducing euthanasia the State would be better employed in providing proper support to palliative care which has been developed largely through voluntary effort.”